A theoretical view on bound antikaon-nuclear states

We present an overview of the latest theoretical studies on the antikaon properties in the nuclear medium, in connection with the recent experimental claims of very deeply bound antikaon-nuclear states. We argue that proper many-body formulations using modern realistic antikaon-nucleon interactions are not able to generate such systems. Instead, a simple two-nucleon antikaon absorption mechanism where the remaining nucleus acts as spectator explains the peak in the semi-inclusive proton momentum spectrum, observed on a 4He target at KEK (but later not confirmed in an inclusive experiment) and on a 6Li target at FINUDA. This signal is clearly seen in another FINUDA experiment measuring the invariant mass of Lambda-proton pairs after two-nucleon kaon absorption. We show that another peak of this experiment, seen at lower invariant masses and interpreted as a bound K-pp state, is simply generated by the same two-nucleon absorption mechanism followed by final-state interactions of the produced particles with the residual nucleus. Our conclusion is that all the experimental claims for the formation of very deeply bound antikaonic nuclear systems receive an alternative explanation in terms of conventional nuclear processes.

6 pages, 4 figures, to appear in the proceedings of 9th International Conference on Hypernuclear and Strange Particle Physics (HYP2006), Mainz (Germany), 10-14 October 2006